When it comes to advertising, size definitely matters. Unfortunately for advertisers, it matters even more to the watchdog that polices the claims they make.

In this instance, DFS was unable to substantiate the visual claims that it had made as to the size of sofas featured in the adverts, because, so the company claimed, the offending items of furniture had all been sold.

In past cases on which the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled, that has not been a problem. Last year staff from the authority were dispatched to Burger King to buy a Double Whopper burger.

Diners had complained that the veritable feast that the company’s advert promised was in fact a more meagre morsel. “In the ad it was basically the size of a cake,” Christopher Graham, the authority’s director-general, said. In reality, the advert was more of a whopper than the burger itself.

“The thickness of the burgers; the quantity of the additional fillings (such as salad) and the subsequent overall height of the product was considerably less than was shown in the ad,” the authority ruled. “We considered the visuals used . . . were likely to mislead viewers.”

Another company to have been found guilty of exaggerating its product was L’Oréal, for its 2007 Telescopic mascara advert with Penélope Cruz. The Hollywood actress coyly told the camera: “So separated. So long. Imagine, lashes that could reach for the stars.” It was only in the latter stages of the ASA’s investigation into the advert that L’Oréal admitted that she had been wearing false eyelashes.

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